LATEST ADDITIONS

Back in 1996, when Congress set the timetable for digital television, one of the provisions left open for later discussion was fees the <A HREF="http://www.fcc.gov/">Federal Communications Commission</A> (FCC) would levy on broadcasters who charged for new pay-TV programming. The deadline for converting to DTV was set to be the year 2006, but how much should the government be compensated for special content such as HDTV movies, stock quotes, or other fee-based services that a broadcaster might charge for?

Media giant <A HREF="http://www.cbs.com/">CBS</A> continues to push the high-definition envelope with the first-ever broadcast of a prime-time dramatic series in HDTV. "The Other Cheek," the episode of <I>Chicago Hope</I> that aired last Wednesday, November 18, was produced by 20th Century Fox Television in cooperation with <A HREF="http://www.sony.com">Sony Electronics</A>' Broadcast and Professional Company using an extensive array of Sony's new HD equipment. It was relayed to 11 CBS affiliates, and it was available on the DirecTV satellite service. The program was broadcast in 1920x1080i, the highest-resolution version of HDTV.

Frank Biondi is making a very lucrative career of resigning from high-level positions. The former television executive and second-in-command at Viacom, Inc. has been forced out of the chairmanship at Universal Studios. The film-production company has not done well at the box office lately, a factor in the depressed stock price of its parent organization, Montreal-based Seagram, Ltd., which owns 80% of Universal. Former Hollywood talent agent and Creative Artists Agency co-founder Ron Meyer, who was Universal's president and chief operating officer, will take Biondi's place.

Following up on the start of the US's digital broadcasting system on November 1, both <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic Industrial Company</A> and <A HREF="http://www.philips.com">Philips Semiconductors</A> announced last week new all-format digital television (DTV) tuner/decoder cards. These cards will allow computer users to view Digital TV (DTV) signals using their desktop PCs hooked up to either a computer monitor or television set. As we reported <A HREF="XXXXX">last week</A>, this may help foster the availabilty of $500 DTV tuners for PCs by early next year.